The Sunday night ADISQ Gala on Oct. 27, 2019, made Québec music history, when Florent Vollant earned the very first Indigenous Artist of the Year Félix award. Recently, during the 2019 SOCAN Awards Gala in Montréal, he also won the very first SOCAN Classic Award presented to an Indigenous artist, for the song “E Uassiuian,” by his former band Kashtin. Vollant believes the time is right to fully integrate Indigenous artists in these celebrations of music. He sees this display of openness as a challenge for the Indigenous community. We met with him in the Gala press room after he accepted his trophy, and he spoke with us about the making his latest album, Mishta Meshkenu and how blessed he feels that his music travels the world.
Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard